Nikica Jelavic has shown his Premiership strike rivals a clean pair of heels at Euro 2012.
With Robin van Persie, Mario Balotelli and Fernando Torres suffering various levels of embarrassment in the opening matches the former SPL striker got off the mark with an opportunist strike for Croatia against Ireland.
Jelavic’s goal helped turn the game Croatia’s way as they went on to a 3-1 victory that leaves them on top of Group C ahead of their clashes with Italy and Spain.
The success of Jelavic is a complete contrast to the form of the other Premiership big guns and adds weight to the suggestion that the standard of the Premiership is slipping rapidly.
Although Chelsea lifted the Champions League both Manchester clubs tumbled out at the group stage with Arsenal quickly dismissed in the last 16 by AC Milan after being thrashed 4-0 in the San Siro.
The Gunners did give them a chance of turning the tie around but van Persie missed a snip at 3-0 in the return leg as Arsenal tumbled out.
That pattern continued on Saturday when the Arsenal striker was chosen ahead of Klaas-Jan Hunterlaar. Van Persie looked as if he had his boots on the wrong feet as he stumbled on half a dozen chances as the Danes ran out 1-0 winners.
Twenty four hours later it was Balotelli and Torres in the spotlight- £80m worth of Premiership strikers.
First in the spotlight was Balotelli who suddenly moved into slow motion when presented with a free run at goal allowing Sergio Ramos to intercept and clear the chance. Three minutes later the Manchester City striker was substituted by Antonio Di Natale who tucked away a chance within four minutes of coming on the pitch.
Disproving the supersub theory was Chelsea flop Torres who found himself left on the bench as Spain opted out of playing with a striker.
With Spain chasing a winner Torres replaced goalscorer Cesc Fabregas with 14 minutes left to play and turned in a performance that summed up the last 18 months of his career- with the exception of his exceptional strike against Barcelona in the Nou Camp.
Giving a passable impersonation of Filip Sebo the Chelsea man managed to miss two good chances, get himself booked and generally see his stock and reputation fall even further.
Later on Sunday night Jelavic, who’s spent most of the last two seasons in the supposed backwater of the SPL showed the Premiership strikers how to tuck away a half chance when he squeezed a shot past Shay Given to put Croatia on the path to victory.
Jelavic spent the first half of the season in the SPL, with Rangers owner Craig Whyte allegedly turning down a bid of over £10m for the striker in August before flogging the Croat to Everton for £5.5m in January.
The Everton striker said: “Obviously I had a great time at Rangers. It was a very special 18 months for me.
“I scored many goals for a great club and I enjoyed every single minute of it but when I signed for Everton I knew I had a new challenge to face.
“I’m just glad that I have also managed to score many goals for them. Now I’m here at this tournament with only one target — to score as many goals for Croatia as I can.
CLICK HEREÂ for Burley issues sack warning to Neil Lennon
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
I doubt that Jelavic will be mentioned at the end of the tourney among the top scorers, it’s a marathon not a sprint.
Some of the football has been decent, some distinctly average & some of it dire…hopefully the best is yet to come.But I’ll give the Greece v Czech game a miss and take my chances it’s not game of the tourney !
No mention of Jelavic’s goal being offside just like many of his hun goals!
I’m quite happy to see Jelavic score for everton just to disprove the myth of it easy to score goals in Scotland. They used to say the same thing about Henrik until he scored against premiership teams in Europe. They seem to forget that he holds the record of most goals for a British club in Europe. 34 in 56 games.
See all the daft english punters they all talk about spl players and the league not being good enough to cut it in the premier league. Thats joost alot of pish.
Why dae they want tae buy our players then. Jelavic has only been at everton since january and hes bangin them in. No doubts hooper wid dae the same and a host of other players r being linked wae awe these mediocre english teams. As for awe the players we r being linked wae : markus henrickson ~ snap him up hes well rated and a young player : hugo rodellga ~ could make the diffrence between champs league n euro league and a proven goalscorer plus hes a free agent : james mcfadden ~ nah patch him he awready hid his chance tae cum the last time n turned us doon and hes past his best noo : leon best ~ sure he played fur newcastle but couldnt hold down a first team position.
Dae we need sumbudy hoo would probs struggle tae even get in the team. Think the money would be better spent elsewhere. Wit wee do need is a fast comanding center back tae partner mulgrew. As for boruc would love tae see him back and blessing his self in front of the manky mob but only if he is free. Wouldnt pay a fee. All in all hope the team is sorted and up tae full speed before our first champions league qualifier. Hail hail.